Chapter 7 - The Viper Escapes
"Mr. Moretti!" I slammed the intercom button in the panic room, my voice echoing through Luca’s earpiece. "The gatehouse feed! Vanessa is gone! The guard is down!"
On the morning room monitor, Luca froze. His head snapped toward Marco.
"Lock down the grounds!" Luca roared, his voice shaking the audio feed. "Nobody leaves! Check the outer tree line!"
The estate erupted into chaos. Sirens wailed across the sixty-acre property, their mechanical screams cutting through the autumn morning fog. Marco sprinted out of the morning room, drawing his sidearm, while Luca hurried directly toward the subterranean staircase.
Thirty seconds later, the heavy reinforced door of our panic room groaned open.
Luca burst inside, his face pale with fury, his eyes darting immediately to Emily and Michael.
"Are you hurt?" Luca demanded, checking his daughter.
"We're fine, Dad, we're fine," Emily said, rising to her feet with Michael supporting her. "How did she get out? You had guards at every perimeter post!"
Luca’s jaw was clenched so hard the muscles looked like cords of iron. "She had help. Someone inside the estate unlocked that cell from the main security console."
I felt a chill run down my spine. "A mole?"
"There are fifty staff members and thirty private contractors working this property," Luca said, his voice flat and dangerous. "Vanessa had three months to bribe, blackmail, or seduce someone on my security roster. Marco found Leo—one of our newer gate sentries—with a hollow-point round through his throat. Vanessa’s car is gone, along with two fully automatic rifles from the guardhouse armory."
Michael’s face tightened with genuine fury. "Where would she go? Her father was just stripped of his power. Her brother is about to be arrested. She has nothing left!"
"A cornered animal with nothing left is the most dangerous creature on earth," Luca said grimly. "Vanessa knows her life is effectively over. The feds are coming for her family, and the Commission will never protect her. Her only goal now will be revenge. And she knows the only way to destroy me completely..."
Luca’s eyes drifted toward Emily’s stomach.
Emily instinctively wrapped both arms around her belly, taking a step back. "She wants my baby."
"She won't touch you," Luca swore, stepping between his daughter and the door. "I am moving all of you. Tonight."
"Where?" Michael asked. "If she has contacts in your network, is anywhere safe?"
Luca reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a small set of brass keys attached to a leather tag marked *Highland Haven*.
"A safehouse in Door County, Wisconsin," Luca said. "Purchased twenty years ago under a shell company that has never been linked to my name. Not even Carmela had the deed in her records. Only Marco and I know the coordinates. There are no electronic security feeds, no cell towers within four miles, no digital footprint."
He looked at me. "Claire."
"Yes, Mr. Moretti?"
"Pack two bags for Emily and one for yourself. Warm clothes. We leave in twenty minutes via the underground boathouse."
"Wait," Emily interrupted, her voice trembling slightly. "Dad... what about my doctor? I have a high-risk ultrasound scheduled for two o'clock today at Northwestern Memorial. The baby’s heart rate was irregular during my last appointment three weeks ago. I can't just disappear into the Wisconsin woods without knowing if my child is healthy!"
Luca’s expression softened with deep paternal pain. He looked at Michael, who nodded grimly in confirmation.
"The doctor said Emily has early signs of preeclampsia," Michael explained, his voice thick with emotion. "The stress of the last two days could trigger preterm labor. We need that scan, Mr. Moretti. We need to make sure the placenta hasn't detached."
Luca closed his eyes for three long seconds. When he opened them, the cold calculation of a mafia boss had returned, tempered by the desperate devotion of a grandfather.
"We do the scan," Luca decided.
"Dad, no," Emily protested, suddenly terrified for him. "If Vanessa knows about the appointment—"
"Vanessa doesn't know about the appointment because you made it under Michael's insurance under the name Emily Taylor," Luca said. "Northwestern Memorial is forty miles from here. But we don't walk through the front doors like ordinary patients."
Luca pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a secure extension.
"Dr. Chen," Luca said into the receiver. "This is Luca Moretti. Clear the entire fourth-floor obstetrics wing at Northwestern for twelve-thirty today. Bring your ultrasound equipment to the private VIP entrance in the sub-basement ambulance bay. If anyone asks, you are conducting an emergency consultation for a high-ranking city official."
He hung up without waiting for an answer.
"We take the armored ambulance from our logistics depot," Luca ordered Marco, who had just appeared in the doorway, his tactical vest stained with motor oil. "Claire, you will ride in the back with Emily and Michael. Marco and I will take the lead vehicle. If a single car follows us within two hundred yards, we execute evasive maneuvers immediately."
I nodded, grabbing Emily’s hand. Her palm was clammy and cold.
May you like
"Don't worry, Emily," I whispered, squeezing her fingers with all the strength I had. "Your father bought a crib a month ago. He’s going to make sure that baby gets to sleep in it."
***
